wind forecast - The Gorge is my Gym

Good morning!

Many apologies for the lack of a forecast yesterday. As many of you know, I work for Mt. Hood Meadows, and yesterday’s nuclear force mountain winds didn’t give me a chance to write a forecast. It’s such a bummer, because I should have said something about the wind up there and the wind on the water. Anyway, please accept my apologies. I will try not to have that happen again.

So, on to today’s forecast. At 5am, it was mostly clear skies up on the slopes and a perfect day for you to skip work. Meadows and T-line are open today, but Skibowl is closed Mon/Tue at this point. I’m going to suggest you check out what the storm left behind. I can’t promise you 23” of powder across the whole mountain. It was far too windy yesterday for that. But there are going to be super-awesome powder stashes, and super-cool wind features. It’s probably worth dragging a camera around with you today on the slopes, or at least bringing a cell phone camera.

The forecast for the next couple of days shows rain on the slopes, a huge bummer on top of all this new snow. Fortunately, models show most of the moisture heading north of us, meaning we’ll just get a dusting of the wet stuff. Wait, you can’t have a “dusting” of rain, can you? A brief shower? A??? I’m too tired to be creative this morning.

As for the wind in the Gorge, it’s not looking very promising for the next couple of days. There’s a chance of light easterlies tomorrow, and slightly stronger east winds on Wednesday.

Finally, we had two unique items stolen from the Hood River Snow Show on Saturday, and if you can help us look out for them, that would be great. The first is a pair of Black Diamond Megawatt skis (188cm, Blue/Black/White). The second is a Unity snowboard (164cm). Please see the pictures below. There is a reward for information leading to the return of the items. And to the person who stole them: you stole that gear from a fundraiser event, and it would be nice if you had the heart to give it back. No questions will be asked.

Have a great day today!

Temira
Megawatt snowboard

Opening Day at Meadows

Good morning! Sorry I missed you guys yesterday. First day of snowphone and first day at the mountain is always chaotic.

Let’s start off with a word of happiness from our friends at NOAA: “THE CASCADES WILL SEE SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS OF SNOW OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS.”

That’s nice, isn’t it? Today’s snow will come this morning, in the form of an intense band of frontal showers. NOAA says 3-7”, and I’m thinking we’ll end up in the lower end of that range. Tonight, however, a stronger, colder system piles into the Cascades, keeping snow levels around 3000 feet. After this front passes, strong west flow will bring lots of snow tomorrow. I think 8-12 inches is reasonable from tonight into tomorrow.

If you’re looking for bluebird on the mountain, your best chance will be on Saturday, when high pressure takes hold for a few hours, possibly clearing skies. At this point, it looks like the snow level will take a jump into the 6000 foot range on Sunday, but as of now, it looks like the bulk of the rain will be north of us. Cross your fingers!

If you’d like to windsurf or kite (Ron, Dave, Laura, Dangler), tomorrow is looking quite good after the front passes. Strong high pressure moves in off the Oregon coast, setting up big westerly gradients across the Gorge. 24-27 east of Hood River seems a fair call for tomorrow, with stronger winds possible if everything sets up right.

Other than that, we’ve got the fashion show coming up Friday night. If you haven’t RSVP’ed on Facebook, you can do so here: http://bit.ly/3OxSA8

And if you haven’t RSVP’ed for the Hood River Snow Show (you had better go to this one, or I’ll be very sad), you can get in on that bit of action here: http://bit.ly/3kliZI

Have a great day today. I’ll be working my butt off today and tomorrow, so get in a ride or some turns for me!